My first show was May 11th in Bristow, Virginia(15 miles outside of Washington DC). This trip was suppose to take three and a half hours. However, thanks to the monsoon-like weather, the trip took, my three friends and I, five and half hours to get there. We ended up missing the first 3 songs and a couple hundred people were turned away due to extreme flooding. When we arrived there, there was no chance of us not getting soaked so we just took off running for the venue. Take note that the venue is similar to the Tweet Center aka the Susquehanna Bank Center(how lame is that name...), which means the parking lot is enormous. We get to our seats just in time for the opening drum sample of '15 Step' (Radiohead 2008 Tour Statistics) Besides their amazing music, their stage display was visually stimulating, which only enhanced the experience. I had never scene anything like the lights they used, apparently they are very eco-friendly. (LED Lighting). Seeing this does not surprise me because Thom Yorke, the lead singer, is very outspoken about being environmentally conscious.
One of the first few songs
Fake Plastic Trees
End of the show.
As you can see from the photos, the lights were spectacular. They were definitely fitting for Radiohead's performance. The show overall was unlike anything I have seen before and I have a long list of shows to compare it to. They ended up playing a total of 25 songs, the 6th rarest setlist on the tour so far, which includes the 2 encores. Even though they played that many songs, I left wanting more.
We realize after the show that we have no idea at all where we parked. Remember how I said this place was huge? The monsoon outside never let up so we had to venture out into the pouring 40 degree rain. Bear in mind, I only had jeans and a tee shirt on. To make a long story short, we searched for over an hour throughout this massive parking lot. It was raining so hard that the entire parking lot turned into a gigantic puddle(Sorry, I have no photo of this. My hands were beginning to contract at that point since they were so cold). No way of avoiding the mini-ocean.
Eventually, we gave upand retreat to a nearby building. So we are huddle under an entrance to some random building. This barely provides any cover for us. Turns out 4 Russian abroad students, who came from NYC, cannot find their car either. So 8 guys, 2 with no shirts on, are huddled under a small blue tarp--shivering, trying to keep warm. The spirits were so low between the group. No one was talking. At one point, we thought if we were out here any longer, we might need to be hospitalized.
All we wanted to do was find the damn car and it was not working out for us. The Russian guys bust out 2 joints and offered to share with us. That boasted our spirits just a tad. After that, my two friends were motivated enough to venture out to find the car. They continously held the panic button and it worked.
We did not get home until 6 in the am. Our trip started at 3pm the day before. I couldn't have asked for a better way to kick off summer.
Whoa, this turned out to be an essay. I will post the second show details later.
Cheers
No comments:
Post a Comment